Together
by darkestboy
Summary: In the TARDIS, both Rose and the Doctor ponder to themselves and privately how long they'll stay together. Set between Fear Her and Army Of Ghosts.


**Name:** Together  
**Characters:** 10th Doctor, Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Elton Pope  
**Synopsis:** In the TARDIS, both Rose and the Doctor ponder to themselves and privately how long they'll stay together. An apology and a piece of advice from Elton makes Jackie more fearful for her daughter's future with the Doctor. Set between _Fear Her_ and _Army Of Ghosts_.

It had been at least a month since Elton's last encounter with Jackie Tyler. With so much that had happened, he had never gotten around to properly apologising to her and on Ursula's advice, he felt that now would be the best time to get it over with.

He wasn't expecting forgiveness, in fact there was a part of him fearing a cold hard slap across his face but when he rang on her door, Jackie's response was somewhat more neutral, more hurt than hostile. Possibly a good sign, he thought.

"What do you want?" Jackie asked, her arms folded, her voice sounding a little weary as the two of them stood in the living room.

"I came to apologise properly," Elton slightly stuttered his words. "I don't think I gave you a decent explanation. It's just-."

"You were looking for the Doctor," Jackie interrupted him, "and you got tricked by this Victor Kennedy and you didn't really mean to hurt my feelings but it happened, you can spare me, I don't hate you."

"You don't?"

"No," Jackie said solemnly. "Rose explained it a lot better than you were trying to there. I get it, the allure of the Doctor but you can't toy with other people's feelings just to get what you want. People get hurt because of it and I don't mean myself."

"I realise that now," Elton assured her. "I did pay a price."

"Ursula? I heard. I'm sorry," Jackie murmured, offering her hand to hold. "If there's anything I can do."

"Yeah, you can," Elton said as his voice became more serious. "Tell Rose to be careful because the Doctor's wonderful and travelling with him, being around like that must be so wonderful but things like never end well. I guess I just can't see them being together forever. That's all I'm trying to say."

"I think you should leave," Jackie told him, suddenly annoyed.

Elton didn't protest, he just simply let himself out. He knew his words had stung Jackie but that not had been his intention. He just felt following his own experiences, both past and more recent that he was doing her a favour. Not that he imagined Jackie viewed it as one of course.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor had been fiddling with the controls and was looking rather pensive. Rose thought to herself that perhaps it was a delayed reaction after being a cartoon of Chloe's for a brief period but there was something about the 'never say never' comment he said to her after she told that nothing would ever split them up that worried her.

"Something on your mind?" the Doctor asked, his eyes thick with attention upon staring at her.

"What you said before — 'never say never'?" Rose asked, "What did you mean?"

"It was a figure of speech, Rose," the Doctor reassured her, as he then noticed that the TARDIS had finally reached it's destination. "Taking each day as it comes, that's all I meant. As if anything would tear us apart and with that, we've landed."

"Where?" Rose smiled, her confidence suddenly elated.

"Let's find out," the Doctor grinned infectiously.

As they stepped out, they looked at the majestic surroundings of a planet, taking in the scenery as they stood side by side, not saying a word to each other, until after a fair amount of time, one of them just had to break the silence.

"How long are you going to stay with me then?" the Doctor asked.

"Forever," Rose replied, meaning it.

With that, the two of them stood on that mystery planet and kept looking at the beauty of what it had to offer. They were unaware that the next time they would step into the TARDIS and land on Earth, they would be drawn into events that really would validate Elton's notions of life with the Doctor having an expiry date.

- The End -


End file.
